Morton shines in Newport try blitz

NEWPORT (Salop) stretched their advantage at the top with a blistering 89-5 victory over Doncaster Phoenix.

With Shropshire title rivals Bridgnorth not in action, Newport played one of their games in hand and a bonus point victory puts them six points clear.

Making his first start for Newport, James Morton scored four tries as they stomped into a 56-0 first-half lead. Also scoring two tries each were Henry Vaka, Harry Mahoney, Toby Evans and Nemani Rayabo.

Chris Taylor also scored in the 13-try victory, while Jack Leonard added 12 conversions.

With the leaders edging clear, the battle for second could be a fascinating one, with three sides separated by two points.

Bridgnorth could only watch as Sheffield and Syston both took victories and pulled back to within touching range.

Sheffield sit in third, a point behind Bridgnorth, but missed out on a bonus point as they ground out a 16-10 win at Bromsgrove.

Will Hodgson propelled Sheffield to victory, scoring three penalties in the first half and following up with a converted score after the break.

Five wins on the bounce have propelled Syston into the promotion battle and they battled out a 32-17 win at Nuneaton.

Nuneaton had taken an early lead with a chargeddown kick and they led 15-14 at the break. However, Syston followed their two first-half tries with three further scores after the break to secure the victory. Josh Brown, Ross Burgoine, Ian Smith, Reece Jones and Aaron Dawson scored tries, while Jones kicked two penalties and a conversion.

Dudley Kingswinford won 14-6 at Sandbach. Sandbach had taken the lead through two James Preston penalties before the DK pack proved too strong, with second-half tries going to Dan Marsh and Joe Dunn.